We had a Magic Celebration today with 2 drafts, standard and modern tournaments.
I had 4:1 in standard with my trusty UR madness/eldrazi/hasters concoction and then modern started.
Won 2:0 against Mardu Removal.dec, 2:0 against Living End (I dismembered my Tidebinder in game 1 to get it back with End, lock a creature and have devotion for Waves which got buffed with second Waves; game 2 was the usual Chalice + Negate affair), 2:1 against Junk (left with 3 lands out and 3 Waves in hand the whole second game) and drew with RG Tron for first place and a nice foil Thalia promo.
This was my official return to 20 lands build. Still mulled a lot. But the deck keeps winning.
I like his list and am going to try it out, but I'm cutting Hurkyl's. I'm moving back to the dodge Affinity plan. I'm switching the 3 Recall and 2 Spellskite for 4 Tec Edge and 1 Kira. The Kira cut from the main will be replaced by either a Vapor Snag or the 4th Reejerey.
How did you come to that conclusion considering Affinity won the event? I would say this makes me lean the other way, and say that this makes me more likely to pack them, given that our dreaded nemeses just spiked an SCG.
I've been reading this forum for over two years and I don't think I've ever seen anyone post this strategic tip that was pointed out to me after a narrow loss to this irritating combo Friday night.
Side in Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and when your opponent cast Lightning Storm and discards lands to kill you, when they pass priority, discard your own land and target Kira, thus countering the spell. Am I the only Merfolk player that didn't know this trick?!?
Agreed on Merfolk Joe's work on the playlist. I'll be putting that up front as a link. I'll do the same for Petr's primer.
As for Unsubstantiate... I'm leaning the same way you guys are. I tested it, and I found the 2 mana to just be too steep a price to pay on several occasions.
Comes up everytime Merfolk wins a GP and Merfolk goes to Tier 1. Its right at the bottom of the Tier 1 list - hopefully the broader community doesnt notice us..
As a side-note - I honestly believe the broader community doesn't "see" us as a Tier 1 deck anyway (thankfully) - we are like Tron in that sense - sometimes Tier 1 - most of the time not..
Of course they don't, simply because Merfolk IS NOT a T1 deck. It CAN'T handle dedicated hate.
Someone is sure in a sour mood about our Tier 1 status!
I disagree with this sentiment, I don't quite understand why you'd say this. Tiers are reflective of popularity, which is reflective of effectiveness generally. That being said, it IS a tier 1 deck because it has put the numbers up once again.
Care to explain what you mean and why?
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"It's not a matter of deserving. It's a matter of strength. The power to hold versus the power to take."
-Sygg, River Cutthroat
I disagree with CoBTyrannon. The first thing to note is that dedicated hate for us is rare (there's nothing like Engineered Plague in Modern). The closest thing to that are sweepers like Oblivion Stone, Supreme Verdict, and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, and we already have strategies to overcome all of them. Our weaknesses are certain matchups (mostly Elves and Affinity), not hate cards - the deck is much too fair to be hosed out of the format like that. And I think we can sustain this, provided we remain popular enough. That's always been the struggle for Merfolk - we diehards remain, but people who like to sample different strategies drift in and out of our ranks (Exhibit A: Paul Rietzl, who did wonderfully when piloting the deck, but soon wandered off for whatever reason).
In other matters, I've decided to go ahead and make an Experimental Cards section on the primer's first page. Please feel free to comment on the contents I've decided to include in that section, as well as any cards you feel should also be in there. My criteria was to include most cards that have compiled less than 50 results on MTGTop8, which is admittedly a bit crude, but the best I could come up with on short notice.
Of course they don't, simply because Merfolk IS NOT a T1 deck. It CAN'T handle dedicated hate.
Someone is sure in a sour mood about our Tier 1 status!
I disagree with this sentiment, I don't quite understand why you'd say this. Tiers are reflective of popularity, which is reflective of effectiveness generally. That being said, it IS a tier 1 deck because it has put the numbers up once again.
Care to explain what you mean and why?
No i will not have this discussion again. If you want my oppinion on it look in the previous posts about it somewhere here in the forum.
Just a few pointers though:
There can and should not be 7 T1 Decks
Simple playrate doesn't make a deck T1
Single Winspikes doesn't make a deck T1
But the overall problem is simply, that i disagree with the Definition of T1 decks used by modernnexus
@Rothgar Because no one runs dedicated hate against us, i'm absolutely sure we are not T1.
No, I'm not going to go dig around for your posts, lol. No one is. This isn't YOUR primer, this isn't YOUR deck. YOU aren't the Merfolk Authority. YOU need to bring evidence to US for YOUR claims. YOU offer nothing to our discussion with your repetitive and apparently thoughtless negativity and dismissal. If your constant negativity and dismissal is not thoughtless, then YOU show us why. That is up to you, we are not here to defer to your every radical opinion and justify those radical opinions to ourselves, for you. Why should we? Because you have 1000 posts? This is not a scenario where we are detracting from the dialogue by all talking about UW splash or something else that has been beat to death. This is a scenario where you show up and detract from the dialogue to.. make yourself feel smart? See why I don't understand your attitude?
Seriously, why do you even bother to post such negative things? Does that make you feel good, honestly? Is life really hard for you right now and you're projecting that here?
I'm very glad you know how to structure the metagame tiers better than Sheridan and others from ModernNexus.. Smh, do you even read what you write? Read it out loud and then ponder if that is who you really want to be here..
None of those statements are facts or "pointers" at all, those are your very limited perceptions that you are extending onto the data that others have compiled. Did you go through and check every single event entry for Merfolk? Did you put together your own metagame analysis? When you do so, I would love to read it. Until then, if you only have negativity and a fixed mindset to offer, please don't shoot down positive proactive discussion. This is a good community, and it will survive without it, don't worry.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"It's not a matter of deserving. It's a matter of strength. The power to hold versus the power to take."
-Sygg, River Cutthroat
I just want to point it out there that tiers is a mixture of potential and popularity. They go hand in hand. A deck with no potential won't be popular. Ties generally define what you'd see in a metagame. Hypothetically if price of progress was legal and burn became tier 1, all of a sudden lifegain.dec would be tier 1 as well in the current metagame. Tiers are fluid, and as of right now, i think Merfolk belongs in tier 1.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Cunning Spark Mage? $0.10
Basilisk Collar? $5.00
Shooting down a baneslayer angel? Priceless
I had 4:1 in standard with my trusty UR madness/eldrazi/hasters concoction
Won 2:0 against Mardu Removal.dec, 2:0 against Living End (I dismembered my Tidebinder in game 1 to get it back with End, lock a creature and have devotion for Waves which got buffed with second Waves; game 2 was the usual Chalice + Negate affair), 2:1 against Junk (left with 3 lands out and 3 Waves in hand the whole second game) and drew with RG Tron for first place and a nice foil Thalia promo.
This was my official return to 20 lands build. Still mulled a lot. But the deck keeps winning.
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=105645
BLiliana, Heretical HealerB| |GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
GWBDoom Plane EnchantressBWG
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
I've been reading this forum for over two years and I don't think I've ever seen anyone post this strategic tip that was pointed out to me after a narrow loss to this irritating combo Friday night.
Side in Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and when your opponent cast Lightning Storm and discards lands to kill you, when they pass priority, discard your own land and target Kira, thus countering the spell. Am I the only Merfolk player that didn't know this trick?!?
*edit* Found the page. Right around the page 200 mark of this forum there is a bit of discussion about it.
BLiliana, Heretical HealerB| |GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
GWBDoom Plane EnchantressBWG
My search failed to produce this result, I appreciate you pointing this out.
http://www.mtgmintcard.com/articles/writers/petr-sochůrek/modern-merfolk-the-best-build-part-3
As for Unsubstantiate... I'm leaning the same way you guys are. I tested it, and I found the 2 mana to just be too steep a price to pay on several occasions.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
http://modernnexus.com/modern-metagame-breakdown-6116-63016/
-Sygg, River Cutthroat
I play all Cavern of Souls decks
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
As a side-note - I honestly believe the broader community doesn't "see" us as a Tier 1 deck anyway (thankfully) - we are like Tron in that sense - sometimes Tier 1 - most of the time not..
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Someone is sure in a sour mood about our Tier 1 status!
I disagree with this sentiment, I don't quite understand why you'd say this. Tiers are reflective of popularity, which is reflective of effectiveness generally. That being said, it IS a tier 1 deck because it has put the numbers up once again.
Care to explain what you mean and why?
-Sygg, River Cutthroat
I play all Cavern of Souls decks
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
No, I'm not going to go dig around for your posts, lol. No one is. This isn't YOUR primer, this isn't YOUR deck. YOU aren't the Merfolk Authority. YOU need to bring evidence to US for YOUR claims. YOU offer nothing to our discussion with your repetitive and apparently thoughtless negativity and dismissal. If your constant negativity and dismissal is not thoughtless, then YOU show us why. That is up to you, we are not here to defer to your every radical opinion and justify those radical opinions to ourselves, for you. Why should we? Because you have 1000 posts? This is not a scenario where we are detracting from the dialogue by all talking about UW splash or something else that has been beat to death. This is a scenario where you show up and detract from the dialogue to.. make yourself feel smart? See why I don't understand your attitude?
Seriously, why do you even bother to post such negative things? Does that make you feel good, honestly? Is life really hard for you right now and you're projecting that here?
I'm very glad you know how to structure the metagame tiers better than Sheridan and others from ModernNexus.. Smh, do you even read what you write? Read it out loud and then ponder if that is who you really want to be here..
None of those statements are facts or "pointers" at all, those are your very limited perceptions that you are extending onto the data that others have compiled. Did you go through and check every single event entry for Merfolk? Did you put together your own metagame analysis? When you do so, I would love to read it. Until then, if you only have negativity and a fixed mindset to offer, please don't shoot down positive proactive discussion. This is a good community, and it will survive without it, don't worry.
-Sygg, River Cutthroat
I play all Cavern of Souls decks
Basilisk Collar? $5.00
Shooting down a baneslayer angel? Priceless
Very nervous because Sunday I have my first big pptq with 50+ players....any advice for a very big/open event like this? Specially for side board.